Thursday, October 7, 2010

Our Final State...This Trip

First, an announcement: D-Dawg posted to his blog a couple of days ago after a long absence and would love to get some comments. Please visit if you know his blog address. Second, on yesterday's blog post I forgot to mention that the snow we saw on the mountains was the first snowfall of the year, which is what Rich and I had suspected. The locals we talked with were surprised to see it when they got up yesterday morning. That made those views even more special.

We left Colorado today and drove into Utah headed for Monument Valley. Rich thought that today compared in its grand beauty with yesterday...nah. Obviously, he is not always right. But I concede that we are back in the presence of magnificent, colorful, ancient rock formations. The ground was such a deep rust color and was dotted with plants of a lovely green over much of the area. The luck was all mine this morning when I happened to see a rather large petroglyph on a rock along the road just before we got to the little town of Bluff, Utah. There was no time to raise the camera or to tell the others where it was because we passed it so quickly; I just delighted in it myself.

This is Mexican Hat Rock.

Driving through Monument Valley.

We decided to visit the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Behind the kids, you can see the two Mitten monuments.

Rich took the girls along when we walked up to the terraces at the Visitor Center.

The view of the monuments was simply amazing from here.

As we entered the park, we had noticed an RV Park across the highway. By the time we had finished our late lunch, we decided to spend the night here so Rich could get more rest. His cold is still hanging on. What a great decision!

We are parked at the base of enormous red rock formations that the kids explored for nearly two hours this afternoon...it was the greatest playground of all! Enlarge the photos below to see our grands in the distant shots. They started by searching the rocks for petroglyphs and then used rocks to scribe some of their own.

It may not look like it in these photos but it took some effort for the boys to climb onto this rock. Shelby checked around the sides and found hand and foot holds on the back which allowed her to climb up too. When she made it she yelled, "I am so proud!" Needless to say, so was Grandma!

The kids each built a balanced rock stack.

Climbing down to cross the canyon and return to the RV, they decided that it will now be named Crane Canyon...a most fitting tribute to their afternoon of hiking, exploring, climbing, building, and leaving their own petroglyphs.

As we returned to the RV a dust storm came up blowing a thin layer of red dust over everything in the RV since the windows were open and Rich was asleep. It didn't stop us from uploading photos, playing dominoes, tossing bean bags (which is what I was making a couple of weeks ago), playing with the girls, having dinner, and watching a movie this evening.

Tomorrow we have a long day of driving to get back to their house. We had planned a Friday return because we didn't want to miss the boys' games. This evening we found out that Jackson will not have a game this Saturday so we will all get to go to Dylan's game...he is so thrilled that his brother will be there!